Poems by Michael Newman, Love Letter, Remembrance, Collision Course

LOVE LETTER

We don’t do platonic,

You and I –

Were always meant to be lovers.

And if I love you for a day,

All the world’s sonnets will flicker

Across my brain,

Set up strobe lighting.

I shall be sectioned for reciting Spenser

In the supermarket.

And if I love you for a month,

A long far holiday month,

Then every candle will be gutted

In every public place,

Unable to cope with the hurricane

Of our passion.

We don’t do platonic,

You and I –

Lovers for a circle of suns

And a cycle of seasons.

Yes, the eternity of a year.

I will have learnt your ways

By then,

How your eyes say yes

When your lips do not move,

How your fingers play Chopin

Across my soul.

It will be like tongues of fire

Where the only language is silence.

(Michael Newman)

18 Courtiers Drive

Bishops Cleeve

Cheltenham

Glos GL52 8NU

REMEMBRANCE

The day my father died

You sought to embrace me,

But I pushed you away

As though something unclean

Had passed between us.

There was no grey

To the all-alone sky,

Just a loud blue

That commanded

Unnatural happiness.

I looked to the hills,

But they were broken-backed,

And could not be retuned.

The day my father died

Your hurt eyes spoke

Across the null-and-void,

But I had nothing left to give.

The teacups tinkled

With mindless laughter,

And the eyes of the clock

Were countersunk:

We passed a silent evening,

Shrieking with unspoken words.

(Michael Newman)

18 Courtiers Drive

Bishops Cleeve

Cheltenham

Glos GL52 8NU

COLLISION COURSE

We dip its beak in water,

Bring it back to flesh and feather.

Mercifully, the neck is not broken.

One bird, newly fledged,

And beyond parental control,

Flying smack into cruel glass.

٭ ٭ ٭

I would have left things at that,

Content to have played a merciful God

In front of my younger children.

But then you take a pot-shot

With your airgun,

And only by luck, miss.

As you battle with the dark side,

And rid your teens of humour,

There is no therapeutic water dip;

Nor do gentle giants, eyes agog,

Will you into fairy-tale flight.

Between needle and black-out,

You flicker on the edge of humanity,

And watch me die.

(Michael Newman)

18 Courtiers Drive

Bishops Cleeve

Cheltenham

Glos GL52 8NU